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Hey – first let me say something I say quite often: sorry! Sorry for not posting anything for such a long time, sorry for not baking anything in a couple of weeks and sorry for it still taking a week for me to post the bake I did. Let’s just say I’ve been crazy busy.

I do say I’m sorry quite a lot – people often tease me with it or say that I should not say it that often. But it is difficult – it has entered my system haha. And I do truly mean it when I say it – however, I often mean the more kind of ‘ I’m sorry for you/that sucks/that is so unfortunate/I wish I could do something to help/that’s a shame’ and not the ‘ I’m sorry because I am the one to blame’. Nevertheless, this time I am sorry as in I am the one to blame for not posting something in quite a while. I tried to remember very hard what my last post actually was and then I realized it was before easter – BEFORE EASTER. That feels so long ago. I’m sorry.

Nevertheless, I had a really nice easter weekend – I went and visited my parents in Mildura. And I did actually bake (twice!) something there, together with Nic. We had a dinner on the first night in Mildura and I offered to bake something. One of the children that came for dinner was gluten-free, so there I got a challenge. I searched the web a bit and found this yummy sounding almond and orange cake, but also a yummy sounding almond and apple cake. So what to do? Combining it! So we made a gluten-free almond, orange, lemon and apple (first time, but pear second time) cake. And it turned out to be very delicious! Soon I will make it for my blog as well!

After the Easter the weekend, the chaos began. I had to work a lot on the cookbook that I am volunteering for which I still enjoy a lot – but it also took a couple of long days of hard work to get it where it is at now. Besides that, I had this big assessment due for my Spatial Design class. We had to design a house of 10 square meters, with everything in it – bathroom, kitchen, dining/living and bedroom – which is a pretty hard challenge. Nevertheless, after a weekend of late nights, stress, stress, stress, freaking out of a stupid model, Google Sketchup, printing a poster, I presented my ‘Mountain House’. My design was a 10 square meter permanent shelter in the mountains for temporary stay for mountain climbers. So happy that that is done – now onto the next assessment.

And of course it stayed busy after – until now – when I have finally found a moment to post up these yummy, delicious, health-ish, high-tea-indulgencing, maple and oat scones. When I was deciding on my bake for the week, I felt like making something a bit less cakey, or sweetish. I was contemplating of going all the way to the savoury side – but scones seemed like a good in between. Besides that, I had never actually made them myself (but have indulged on them in the UK the last time I was there) and I had no reason for never making them (because I really like them, I have made tea biscuits before which are really yummy as well – maybe on my blog sometime soon?), so it was time! I did some research on scone recipes on my good old friends BBC food and BBC Good Food. However, none of the recipes seem to please me enough to get excited to start making them. So I went of my computer, back into real cookbook and got the scones recipe from A Piece of Cake by Leila Lindholm. I planned on making her recipe – but I wanted to change it a bit, so I could create it for my own blog. So I wondered around the internet a bit more and stumbled across the Oat and Maple Syrup Scones from Smitten Kitchen.

So in the end I did what I did with the gluten-free cake as well – I made a recipe which combined both Leila’s recipe and the Smitten Kitchen scones. And well – they turned out pretty delicious. Good as afternoon tea, good for breakfast, good for during a group meeting for a presentation, good with jam, good just by it self, buttery, flaky, yummy.

So no more sorry’s for today – and no more talking 🙂 get your English high tea mood on with a hint of Canadian syrup and enjoy :)!

Oat and maple scones

Makes about 8 large scones

80g oats

220g whole wheat flour

150 all-purpose flour

1 very heaped tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup maple syrup

120g butter

1 egg

1/2 cup mil

1 egg and oats for finishing

Preheat the oven to 220C and place a sheet of baking paper on a baking sheet

Mix together the oats, flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Dice the butter and mix it with the dry ingredients with your fingertips to make breadcrumbs.

Whisk the egg together with the milk.

Mix the mixtures and the maple syrup and the dry ingredients together to make a stiff dough. Add more flour if the dough is still too sticky and add more milk if you think the dough it too dry. (I had to add some more flour)

Turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out to about 2.5 – 3cm thick. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out eight rounds.

Put them on the baking sheet. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with oats.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 20 – 25 minutes or until golden.

Serve by themselves, or with jam (and maybe whip cream?) and enjoy :)!

Let me know what you think? And what is your favourite bake for a high tea?

Hello – a sunny morning to you ( okay, maybe not – the Sydney sky is pretty grey today haha)

I’m glad it is weekend – although I of course have lots to do this weekend as well. Last week was very busy for me since I had two assignments for my study due and was working on my cookbook volunteering job a lot as well. But oh well – after 1.5 week of not sleeping that much everything got handed in that had to be handed in. And I was quite pleased with my end results. Now onto the next assessment 😉 (yes they never let you take a break haha). But I will make time for breaks and for BREAKfast muffins :)!

I was not sure what I was going to make this week, I had not put much thought in it to be honest since my head was everywhere and nowhere (and my brain was not functioning as it should). However, in the last couple of days I got some inspiration for this weeks bake! Nicolas has to get up very early for his job everyday and does not really have time to make a nice breakfast in the mornings – so I figured I might try to find a bit of a solution (just for the coming week) for that: breakfast muffins! They should be healthy, filling, easy to take, nutritious and tasty! I did some research online and ended up making a whole wheat/oat/banana/hazelnut/dates/coconut/spices/coffee (yes caffeine is needed in the morning) mixture – which turned in muffins after being in the oven. So they are completely butter/oil free and they have no refined sugar (only natural fruit sugars).The muffins are also whole wheat and whole grain (if you use whole grain oats). They are very filling (good for breakfast!) (and the recipe makes a lot haha), they are also not very sweet – which might be better for breakfast (but you can increase the dates or add some sugar if you want – and I think they will be sweeter with more overripe banana’s – because mine were still quite ‘new’). I did like them a lot – but next time I would put some fruit in them as well – maybe blueberries or apples. In my opinion, the muffins were quite heavy in texture and taste and the only thing breaking away from that were the hazelnuts. They can be frozen (and then taken out the night before you want to have them for breakfast) or just stored in an air-tight container (but make sure you eat them within 4 – 5 days if you don’t freeze them). I hope you like them – but do feel free to experiment with different nuts or the addition of some fruit (dried or fresh)!

Breakfast muffins

makes 15 big muffins

200g whole wheat flour

200g whole grain oats

100g desiccated coconut

2 tsp ground flaxseed (optional)

4 tsp baking powder

3.5 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

150 g roasted and chopped hazelnuts (or other nuts)

1 1/2 cup milk (can be replaced with non-dairy milk – and feel free to add a bit more if the batter is very dry)

1/2 cup cold coffee

3 banana’s (preferably very ripe)

120g dates

2 eggs, divided

Preheat the oven to 200C. Roast the hazelnuts for 8 minutes (stir them around after 4 minutes). And line your muffin tin with muffin paper cups.

Combine the flour, oats, coconut, flaxseed, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in a big mixing bowl. Chop the cooled hazelnuts into coarse pieces and add them to the dry mixture.

Mash the banana’s into a puree. Process the dates in a food processor with a bit of warm water to make a soft paste. Insert the banana’s and process a little more.

Add the banana and date mixture to the flour mixture. Add in the milk, coffee and egg yolks. Mix all until well combined. Feel free to add more milk if the texture seems a bit dry. (If you want to add any fruit – I would do it at this stage).

Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks (I recommend using an electric mixer to do this). Fold the egg whites carefully into the batter.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups – you can probably fill up more than 15 muffins if you prefer smaller muffins.

Bake the muffins for 25 – 30 minutes in the oven. But check them every now and then. If a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean and not very wet, they should be done. If you are not sure, take one muffin and break it open. The inside should be moist but dry – so not looking like batter any more. Leave them in the tin for 5 minutes before taking them out. They can be enjoyed warm or cold! I hope you like them!